I saw a lot of blue cards, enchantments, and artifacts, so how about Hanna, Ship's Navigator as your commander? She gets all of those combo cards back. You could Treachery something, sacrifice the creature, use her ability and play it again. Replay Memory Jar for fun. Nevinyrral's Disk is on theme and a great removal card from that era.
Viscera Seer is one of the nuttiest sac outlets around. And, after you sacrifice everything, cast Living Death. Ashnod's Altar is also an outlet I can't recommend enough. It's not Phyrexian Altar, but you'll find lots of uses for it. Blood Artist (and similar effects) fits the sac theme.
Notes:
So far, I've played a few games and the deck feels good. I feel Chief Engineer isn't as good as I thought, but I haven't drawn it much. Blinkmoth Urn seems unnecessary, but I'm not sure. I have a lot of redundant cards, but I'm having trouble picking which loops of cards I like best. I need to find a Foundry Inspector. Tribute Mage, Trophy Mage, and Drift of Phantasms are possible tutors.
Idk if this is smart or not but im thinking of using a lot of doing a voltron thing. 7 power is a great floor for power cause you only need to hit 3 times. Just copy an unblockable like Slither Blade to swing as an unblockable and try to use +1 counters or even stuff like Thornling/Aetherling/Endling to pump him up for bigger damage. The lings also have protective abilities too.
I was thinking the same thing and including Heroes' Bane or Chameleon Colossus. End of your turn, copy Heroes' Bane and pump Volrath. On my turn, do it again and spend one more to copy the unblockable dude and swing.
I feel the need to speak up for Vhati il-Dal. I built a deck with him at the helm with lots of funny -1/-1 shenannigans. It's a flavorful include in the 99, too.
I used to have Hellcarver Demon and Insidious Dreams. I took them out because they really under performed. I feel Insidious Dreams is much more useful in a deck that can handle Bolas's Citadel. I never got to resolve Hellcarver very often and, when I did, he either ate removal immediately or the game was over before I could use his text.
Treasonous Ogre is a great card! But not in this deck. I sway heavily towards black mana symbols and I've really taken the time to limit what red mana I really do need.
And...I know people really think I need more enablers...but I don't. Rakdos is real easy to play. If you feel otherwise, please tell me how your games went. It's possible that I'm just not having those same games. I feel I may remove Smoldering Tar because it costs 4 and replace it with Lim-Dûl's Hex or Retreat to Hagra. Cryptolith Fragment is another card, but it's just one of those odd uncommons I can't find in my thousands of cards.
Rakdos the Defiler is a suggestion. I don't play him because he's hard to cast, even with a discount, and he nukes all my own stuff. His other ability of nuking my opponent's board is also kinda meh because they're usually dead at that point. He's neither fun nor effective. Rakdos, the Showstopper is a much better version of the old, busted Dissension version.
Rakdos, Lord of Riots On paper, it looks fragile. In practice, it's amazing how many time he connects and you get to poop your hand out onto the board. Just pick the best demons. You even have support like Blood Speaker. Sin Prodder and Plague Spitter are not demons, but they enable Rakdos and come down a turn before he does. Redraw with Knollspine Dragon! Drop free Eldrazi and Wurmcoil Engine! Sire of Insanity wins game by his lonesome.
Wonder and Filth are great cards to discard. If you want to bin specific cards to reanimate, Buried Alive and Entomb are great for that. You could put Archaeomancer in the yard and get back the Living Death every time. Mitigates board wipes and gets more of use out of that Wayward Servant.
Depends on how much mana you have.
The reanimation spells need to be cheap and/or work from places other than your hand like Exhume, Reanimate, Dread Return, Apprentice Necromancer, and Doomed Necromancer. Reanimate a creature that reanimates a creature for value.
To mitigate mana issues, add really broken things like Animar, Soul of Elements. Cast Orcus, Prince of Undeath with a deep discount. Artisan of Kozilek for free.
Things like Archaeomancer and Anarchist pick up sorceries from the graveyard, so you can Living Death again.
Pandemonium is a great way to go. I'd also suggest Flayer of the Hatebound. It also just waits in your graveyard until you're ready for it.
What do you get with Apostles? It's only going to be one or two cards in the deck, so pick your favorite. Potential Demon Targets:
Birthing Boughs makes skeleton tokens. Taurean Mauler is a great skeleton. So is Chameleon Colossus. Adaptive Automaton is made to shore up tribal decks like these.
Non-Budget:
1 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
Permission
1 Cryptic Command
1 Sinister Sabotage
1 Forbid
1 Unwind
1 Counterspell
1 Stifle
1 Misdirection
Sac Outlets
1 Altar of Dementia
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
Stuff to sacrifice
1 Ticking Gnomes
1 Perilous Myr
1 Memnite
1 Myr Moonvessel
1 Su-Chi
1 Servo Schematic
Search
1 Intuition
1 Artificer's Intuition
1 Whir of Invention
1 Trinket Mage
Draw
1 Thoughtcast
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Rhystic Study
1 Windfall
1 Frantic Search
1 Oona's Grace
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Serum Visions
1 Opt
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Careful Study
1 Blinkmoth Urn
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Mind Stone
1 Springleaf Drum
1 Sol Ring
1 Expedition Map
1 Mana Vault
1 Lotus Petal
Artifact-matters creatures
1 Chief Engineer
1 Grand Architect
Untappers
1 Mirran Spy
1 Chakram Retriever
1 Thornbite Staff
Cost reduction
1 Etherium Sculptor
1 Jhoira's Familiar
Utility cards
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Clock of Omens
1 Nim Deathmantle
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Skullclamp
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Aether Spellbomb
1 Hope of Ghirapur
1 Pithing Needle
1 Ivory Tower
1 Conjurer's Bauble
Lands
30 Island
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Cephalid Coliseum
1 Urza's Tower
1 Urza's Power Plant
1 Urza's Mine
Artifacts
1 Altar of Dementia
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Clock of Omens
1 Blinkmoth Urn
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Mind Stone
1 Springleaf Drum
1 Sol Ring
1 Expedition Map
1 Mana Vault
1 Lotus Petal
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Aether Spellbomb
1 Pithing Needle
1 Ivory Tower
1 Conjurer's Bauble
1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
1 Servo Schematic
1 Nim Deathmantle
1 Thornbite Staff
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Skullclamp
1 Chakram Retriever
1 Chief Engineer
1 Grand Architect
1 Mirran Spy
1 Trinket Mage
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Etherium Sculptor
1 Jhoira's Familiar
1 Perilous Myr
1 Ticking Gnomes
1 Memnite
1 Myr Moonvessel
1 Su-Chi
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Hope of Ghirapur
Sorceries
1 Thoughtcast
1 Windfall
1 Serum Visions
1 Ponder
Enchantments
1 Artificer's Intuition
1 Rhystic Study
Instants
1 Cryptic Command
1 Sinister Sabotage
1 Forbid
1 Unwind
1 Counterspell
1 Stifle
1 Intuition
1 Whir of Invention
1 Frantic Search
1 Oona's Grace
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Opt
1 Brainstorm
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Careful Study
1 Misdirection
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Urza's Tower
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Cephalid Coliseum
1 Urza's Power Plant
1 Urza's Mine
30 Island
The basic idea is assemble a loop as fast as possible. A simple example is:
Notes:
So far, I've played a few games and the deck feels good. I feel Chief Engineer isn't as good as I thought, but I haven't drawn it much. Blinkmoth Urn seems unnecessary, but I'm not sure. I have a lot of redundant cards, but I'm having trouble picking which loops of cards I like best. I need to find a Foundry Inspector. Tribute Mage, Trophy Mage, and Drift of Phantasms are possible tutors.
I was thinking the same thing and including Heroes' Bane or Chameleon Colossus. End of your turn, copy Heroes' Bane and pump Volrath. On my turn, do it again and spend one more to copy the unblockable dude and swing.
Things like Leviathan:
Treasonous Ogre is a great card! But not in this deck. I sway heavily towards black mana symbols and I've really taken the time to limit what red mana I really do need.
And...I know people really think I need more enablers...but I don't. Rakdos is real easy to play. If you feel otherwise, please tell me how your games went. It's possible that I'm just not having those same games. I feel I may remove Smoldering Tar because it costs 4 and replace it with Lim-Dûl's Hex or Retreat to Hagra. Cryptolith Fragment is another card, but it's just one of those odd uncommons I can't find in my thousands of cards.
Rakdos the Defiler is a suggestion. I don't play him because he's hard to cast, even with a discount, and he nukes all my own stuff. His other ability of nuking my opponent's board is also kinda meh because they're usually dead at that point. He's neither fun nor effective. Rakdos, the Showstopper is a much better version of the old, busted Dissension version.